PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a 92-year sentence against a man who was 14 when he was convicted of killing his stepfather, Attorney General Marty Jackley announced Friday.
A jury convicted Daniel Charles of first-degree murder in 2000 in the sniper killing of Duane Ingalls in 1999. The youth laid in wait behind his upstairs bedroom window. When Ingalls returned to the family’s ranch house near Opal, Charles shot him in the head with a high-powered rifle.
Charles testified in his trial that Ingalls frequently mistreated him and struck him on the side of the head earlier on the day of the shooting. To ease his frustration, he said, he had often lined up the unsuspecting Ingalls in the cross hairs of a rifle scope. But he claimed he didn’t know the gun was loaded that day. However, another youth testified that Charles later told him he had planned to kill Ingalls.
Charles was sentenced to mandatory life in prison with no possibility for parole. After the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2012 that mandatory life without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional, the trial judge cut Charles’ sentence to 92 years. Charles appealed, saying it was still tantamount to life without parole.
The South Dakota Supreme Court said the judge properly applied the law handed down in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling when he imposed the 92-year sentence.
The justices noted that Charles will be eligible for parole when he turns 60. They also cited the trial court’s finding that Charles “still presents a condition of moral atrophy” and that Charles “continues to manipulate,” ’’explodes in anger if his buttons are pushed,” and has “only recently stopped lying.”
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